Balasore: In a heartbreaking incident, two minor girls (cousins) drowned in an artificial fish-farming pond near their house in Badas village under Baliapal police limits on Thursday afternoon.

The tragedy has cast a pall of grief over the village and the Baliapal Community Health Centre, where the children were declared dead.

According to reports, a grand ‘Biswa Shanti Maha Yajna’ was underway in Badas village. The family of Nakia Biswal from nearby Dagara had come to visit relatives at the residence of his brother-in-law, Deepak Raut. Around 3 PM, while the family members were inside the house, Deepak Raut’s five-year-old daughter, Baishnabi Raut, and Nakia Biswal’s three-year-old daughter, Rashmita Biswal, were playing outside.

Unnoticed, the two little girls reportedly wandered nea

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